I have been struggling with the Early New England Families Study Project sketch for Thomas Cornish of Gloucester, Mass.; Exeter, N.H.; and Newtown, Long Island. While there are half a dozen published accounts on the family, or various parts of it, they disagree on almost everything.
Some accounts claim that Thomas had children who remained in New England; others point to evidence the Cornishes were in New York and New Jersey. Some accounts include a daughter Martha who married consecutively to Francis Swain and Caleb Leverich. Other accounts say that Martha must have married a son of that Francis Swain (who was twenty years her senior, not to mention that he had been in trouble with the law and the family in Exeter when he was accused of making unwanted advances to Thomas Cornish’s wife – so, then, how did he end up married to the daughter?). Some accounts claim that Thomas Cornish had a brief stay in Gravesend, New York, between being in Gloucester and Exeter, then returned to Long Island. I can go on, but time is short.
This “all-my-ancestor” treatment is noticeably disjointed because it was compiled and updated over a span of years, with additions, corrections and supplemental material for previous volumes added to later ones…
I am not an expert on Long Island or New Jersey families, so it is fortunate that I have on-line access to a massive manuscript written by Herbert Furman Seversmith entitled “Colonial Families of Long island, New York and Connecticut[,] Being the Ancestry & Kindred of Herbert Furman Seversmith.”[1] This “all-my-ancestor” treatment is noticeably disjointed because it was compiled and updated over a span of years, with additions, corrections, and supplemental material for previous volumes added to later ones, all without indexes (the database on Ancestry.com does, fortunately, provide index access in that form). One usually finds one’s way to the manuscript through a reference cited in a book or article by a genealogist familiar with that territory.
Seversmith’s research was in depth and perhaps most valuable when he assessed evidence to prove or disprove a claim, although in the case of Thomas Cornish’s family, one of his arguments may be incorrect. Seversmith did not include the daughter Martha, arguing that evidence was not clear that Francis Swain’s wife was Thomas’ daughter, while still acknowledging that many records showed association of some kind among the families. Later published treatments provide documents not available to Seversmith that, while still circumstantial, support Martha (____) (Swain) Leverich as a daughter of Thomas Cornish.
All of which I have to explain in my Early New England Families treatment of Thomas Cornish. Time is short. The deadline for completing enough sketches for Volume 2 of the book series looms ahead, but the pixies of genealogy keep throwing these tangles in my way!
Note
[1] Four volumes published between 1939 and 1958. This mimeographed manuscript (only 25 copies made) is accessible at the NEHGS library. The digital version is available on Ancestry.com by searching “Catalog” with the word “Seversmith.”
Alicia,
I always enjoy your blog posts, and the Long Island puzzle is no exception. But I had to smile at your suggestion that the “pixies of genealogy” were throwing tangles in your way. Sounds more like the “trolls of genealogy” have been rolling logs across your path.
I should call this “Trog” genealogy!
Alicia–
I have a Thomas Cornish; wife, Mary Stone, who died in MA c1662, He had Priscilla, born c1635, who marr William Hunter in Boston. Same pixie tangles??
Looks like it. Great Migration on William Hunter indicates his first wife Priscilla/Sissilla “Corish” (no “n”) parents are unidentified. She cannot be the daughter of Thomas and Mary (Stone) Cornish who didn’t get married until 1641 and for whom there is no evidence of a daughter by that name.
Trogs at work.
Alicia:
With respect to the Great Migration entry for William Hunter, it simply states: “Marriage: (1) 30 January 1656/7 Scissilla Corish [BVR 58]. She died soon. (2) by 1659 Mary Carter…”
In a 1964 article for The American Genealogist (40:82) by Mrs. John E. Barclay, FASG, it was stated that: “William Hunter… married first… “Scissilla Corish” … She must have died soon, for he was married by the latter part of 1658 to Mary Carter, but no record was found.”
With no death record for Scissilla Corish, it appears that her death prior to 1659 may be only an assumption based on William Hunter’s marriage to Mary Carter.
I’m wondering if the first marriage actually pertains to a different William Hunter. Secondary sources state that a William Hunter was admitted an inhabitant of Springfield, Massachusetts in early 1662; he reportedly arrived with his wife Priscilla and two children. Several more children were born to them at Springfield, including a daughter also named Priscilla. William Hunter was killed by native Americans on 4 July 1676; “David Frow and wid. Priscilla Huntur [were] Joined in Marriage” on 7 February 1677.
The 1657 Boston marriage of William Hunter and Scissilla Corish would fit the family group William and Priscilla (—) Hunter of Springfield nicely and Torrey’s Marriage Index seems to support this conclusion.
Of course, this assumes that “Scissilla” is a recording or transcription error Priscilla but it might represent Cecilia or another name.
Your thoughts?
Perry
I could think of no one better to puzzle it all out. You are doing an amazing job with all sorts of conflicting evidence! Many current and future genealogists will thank you!
Now about that Hutchinson family … of whom 99% of the males are named William … 🙁
Whenever I get to the years the kids married.
Seversmith’s book is available, digitized, on openlibrary.org. I just joined the waitlist as I have two lines running through Long Island needing more research.
it’s available here https://archive.org/details/colonialfamilies01seve
you have to sign in or make an account but I just “returned” my copy so it should be available now.